Dell Rapids street names changed with the times

Have you ever wondered how your street got its name? For many of us, it doesn’t seem all that important to investigate the origin of our street names. Many, after all, were just arbitrarily named after people, plants, trees, presidents or states. Most aren’t really very interesting.

However, there are many roads scattered about the U.S. that are, in fact, a bit more curious. Some of those include: Duh Drive, Chicken Dinner Road, Frying Pan Road, Roast Meat Hill Road, Zzyzx Road, Pickle Dog Road, 100 Year Party Court, Pillow Talk Road, Dingleberry Road, Whicha Way, Puddin’ Ridge and Bimbo Road.

On a personal note, the kids in our neighborhood went through our grade school years at a large, castle-like building in Sioux City called Smith School. It was previously owned by a doctor named Smith, who had five children. So, five streets surrounding the building were named after the Smith children: Ross, George, Rebecca, Isabella, and Myrtle. We lived on Ross Street, and it was interesting to know that it was named after one of the Smith children.

So, what about streets in this area? We’ll start with a quick quiz. See if you can name the town with these street names: Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Blaine, Bolster, Elm, High, Alva, and Fremont. Sound familiar?

You might be surprised to learn that the town with those street names is, in fact, our own town of Dell Rapids. According to 1887 and 1910 plats, the current avenues remain as they were then, but there were no numbered streets in Dell Rapids at that time. Numbered streets are now used in the majority of America’s cities and towns, but in the early days the practice hadn’t caught on in many places. As the cities grew larger, though, people realized the logic in numbering streets and how it would make things much easier.

So, let’s see if you live on one of the streets mentioned above. We’ll start at Pearl Street, which is now Fourth Street (also called Main Street). Pearl was the name of the first baby born in Dell Rapids, and apparently the street was named after her.

Fremont Street was the next street north, which is now Fifth Street. As we go north another block, we’re on High Street, which is now Sixth Street. Many U.S. towns in the early days had a High Street, possibly because of the influx of Europeans. High Street is widely used in the U.K., and is always the main business street in a U.K. town. It’s counterpart in our country is “Main Street.”

Next, we go north to Seventh Street, which was originally Alva Street, according to the 1910 plat. However, according the 1887 plat, Seventh Street was Massachusetts Street. You decide.

Moving north, we come to Blaine, now Eighth Street. Then we move on to Pennsylvania, which is now Ninth Street. Many of our early residents came here from eastern states, so that may explain the street names of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

The next street to the north is Jasper Street. It may have been named so because of our close proximity to the town of Jasper, but that is only a guess.

Moving on, we come to 11th Street, which was called Granite Street in the early days. It may have been named after the rich deposits of pink quartzite in Dell Rapids, which is often mistakenly referred to as granite.

As our walk north comes to an end, we come to 12th Street, which was called Bolster; 13th Street, called Elm Street – which is still one of the most common street names in the U.S. – and finally, 14th Street, which was appropriately called North Street. And with that, our tour of old Dell Rapids street names comes to an end.

Editor’s note: Archives at the Dell Rapids Museum were the sources used in doing this story. If you have any additional information, feel free to let us know.